Area tourism in full swing

NEW BREMEN — A self-described “cheerleader for the area,” Greater Grand Lake Region Visitors Center Executive Director Donna Grube swung by the New Bremen New Knoxville Rotary meeting on Tuesday morning to talk about everything that’s going on in the two-county area.

Grube, who is in her 19th year as director for the visitor’s center, said she originally had a list of things she wanted to see when she first took over which included: breweries, wineries, specialty candy stores, real creamery ice cream places and farm heritage.

“That took a while,” Grube said, referring to farm heritage. “Farm is big business ... but with MVP Dairy, north of Celina, at least now we have a place to send folks to learn more about agriculture. When you talk about being in the top agriculture area in the state, it’s kind of nice to have somebody to let them see that.”

She said her list is “nearly complete”, adding maybe she would like to see a distillery in the area at some point.

“We have the amenities that so many people enjoy and then we have the small-town charm,” she said, adding that when you go to larger cities like Cleveland, Columbus or Cincinnati, there’s plenty of things to do, it just lacks the charm.

Grube said last year kind of forced the center to change how they marketed the area because of the pandemic.

“We just showed what it’s like to be at Grand

Lake St. Marys,” she said. “We showed what it’s like to live in our area. We’ve gotten a great response from that marketing.”

She said that the center targets bigger cities that are up to two hours away including Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. Grube said they also see a good amount of people from Northeast Ohio visit as well.

She said whereas those cities focus on bringing large groups together at once, Grube’s focus is smaller.

“Big cities concentrate on conventions and conferences. I bring in five or six people at a time,” she said. “They want to bring in 500 or 5,000 people at a time with those meetings and conventions. Ours is leisure marketing and we focus on heritage and recreation travelers.” As far as 2020, she said that the center’s income was down nearly 40% as its funding comes from lodging tax and there weren’t near as many people traveling and staying in hotels as previous years.

Aside from that, Grube said it was still a great year for the area, as people from out-of-town were traveling to visit.

“People were tired of being home. They were looking for wide open spaces. They wanted to go somewhere, see something,” she said. “We kept our visitor’s center open the entire time. Folks would come in and say, ‘We just had to get out of the house. We always wondered about this lake.”

Grand Lake St. Marys State Park had a record year for campers and Grube said this year that all camping spots were filled back in April for major holiday weekends this summer.

Also new in 2020 was the Brews-N-Vines Trail, which Grube said was something they wanted to implement in the offseason.

The Grand Lake Brews-N-Vines Trail features a free digital passport system and it allows participants to check in to the featured local breweries, wineries and coffee shops. It also allows the venues to offer their potential customers specials, discounts and incentives, if they choose to do so.

Once a participant visits 10 out of the 14 venues, they will receive a free Grand Lake Brews-N-Vines Trail tee shirt.

Grube said more than 1,000 people downloaded the passport in its first two months it was available.

The lake itself is having a healthy year so far as algae levels are down and the state has removed advisory signs from around it.

While there’s potential for another algal bloom to occur later in the summer, Grube said it’s something to be thankful for now.

“We’re certainly moving in the right direction and we’re getting closer,” she said. “It’s another reason to be happy.”

As the state starts moving forward and aims to put the pandemic in the rear view, Grube said she was excited on Tuesday because she was conducting her first bus tour in 19 months, another thing she loves about working at her “dream job.”

“I get to go around and work to brag. I get to brag about the area we live in,” she said. “I think most of us live in this area because we love it. We love to be here, we appreciate it and that’s my job. I get to tell folks, ‘Maybe you can’t live here, but you can come visit.’ It’s amazing how many people do come visit and will eventually move here because it is a terrific area.”

To learn more, the Greater Grand Lake Visitors Region is online at SeeMore.org.